Our thirty day trial has ended as of today. Over all I must say that I am not “sold” on the program. It’s a fun program, but the learning is VERY minimal. I only let my son use it AFTER he has done his other school work and done a good job on it. Thus it is more of a reward for him. It works great for this, especially if you have a child that like being on the computer. For an overall curriculum though, it is not a great choice. There just isn’t a lot of content to it. But this seems to be the standard with online programs like this. This is not the first one I have looked at and overall, I have found them ALL to be lacking in content.

How do you answer that? This is just one of the many questions put forth by my children every time I turn around. Thankfully, THE QUESTION hasn’t come up just yet. I am not ready for that. But I do love the questions presented me. It gives me an opportunity to sit down with my children and have a personal conversation with them.

I especially love when I don’t have ready answers. You may think this sounds crazy, but as a homeschool mom I see great value in not having the answers all the time. The first thing we do when presented with a question we don’t have the answer to, is begin some research. This teaches my kids great skills in researching and finding out answers for yourself. This is valuable if you want to raise children who will think for themselves as adults.

Second, it teaches them that we don’t always have all the answers and that it’s fine to say, “I don’t know.”

After our research “party” we then get the opportunity to sit down and discuss the finer points of the question based on our findings and then compare them what we already know. This helps them to think things through and make sound decisions based on the values and morals that we have taught them.

For me there is no greater reward than to see your children learn, grow and apply the little lessons in life. I am thankful everyday that I have the opportunity to witness this first hand.

As for the brain washing, well, if you want to know, you will just have to research it for yourself :).

So…it’s been a few weeks since I lasted posted here. We have been busy. We had spring break and the the kids went to some classes at the local bookstore. We learned all about volcanoes…Caleb can’t get enough now. I had to go and find out how to make one like on the episode of the “The Brady Bunch” so he can make it explode. We will work on that this week.Then we learned about planting gardens and growing our own food along with composting…both boys can’t wait to jump into that. This Thursday (earth day) we are going to make ready our garden to plant. We’ll see how this goes. The last few years we’ve tried and failed miserably. But it’s a new year and a new beginning.The art class and the animals from the zoo were Andre’s favorite classes. He just loves animals and loves learning about them. Erin also loves animals. Jadin and Caleb, not so much. They are too busy to stop and watch. Perhaps we will squeeze in a trip to the zoo on Friday. I just LOVE homeschooling and am so blessed to have the freedom to do this. It is so much fun to hang with my kids and watch them grow and learn. I especially love those “A-HA” moments when they finally grasp the lesson or learn something new.Here’s to a new week of adventures…

Thats easy. Because we love our kids. Does this mean I am saying that if you choose to not home school your kids, you do not love your kids as much as we love our kids? Not at all. But you did ask me why we chose to home school and our first reason is because we love our kids and we think they deserve a lot better than what the current public school system has to offer them.

I lived in Montana when my first child was born and my huband and I decided that we would home school our son. So I started doing some research online about home schooling and whether it was legal and where (just in case we moved).

I poured over the internet and soon found out homeschooling is very much legal in every state. Although many people would have you believe that its not. Then we moved…

We found a lady that had homeschooled her kids and they were in high school at the time. This helped me to get started as we had A LOT of people tell us they thought it was wrong and we shouldn’t do it. But I knew, and my husband knew, that this was the right choice for us.

Here is why:

First of all, I believe in God. My faith is important to me and I hope to raise children who not only understand there is a God, but that they can find answers to life in the bible. I cannot, in clear conscience, send my children anywhere where God has been banned. What message would I be sending my kids if I did? I hope to teach my children many things, how to read, about our nations history, etc. but the most important thing I wish to teach my children is to love God and keep him first in their lives.

Second, I want to protect my children from the lack of morals and ethics that seems to run rampent in our society today. Do I keep my children locked in the house, hoping they will never see/hear/feel evil? No, that would be impossible as well as impractical. I am taking this short time I have with them and teach them good values that will prepare them to overcome anything they may encounter in their lifetime.As a parent, I have the right as well as the responsibility to protect my children from anything I deem harmful. I am obligated to keep them safe and I WANT to keep them safe.

Of course, there other reasons why I homeschool. For example:

-I like spending time with my kids

-I enjoy laughing and learning with them

-I enjoy sharing my beliefs with them.

-I enjoy seeing them grow and change and develop

My time with my children is short. I want to spend every chance I can helping them grow into happy, capable, kind hearted people. I feel that homeschooling gives me the most opportunity to meet these goals. It is not always easy, it takes a lot of time and sometimes, it can be very frustrating. But it has been 100% worth it to not only myself, but our family.